Londongrad Part I - "Gott Strafe England!"

The bulk of Allied forces are concentrated in Belgium. Their initial deployment is supposed to reflect a rush to the Dyle Line, which is still in progress as hostilities open at the beginning of Turn 2.

To reflect this, they are "garrisoned" and unavailable for orders until Turn 3, giving the Germans an opportunity to make a good start in their race for Abbeville and the Channel.

In addition, they start the game with very low supply and readiness levels, slowing down their ability to redeploy to meet the German threat, once released. A game option allows these supply and readiness levels to be boosted, simulating more rapid and better Allied decision making and execution in the opening stages of the battle [by giving a large boost to Allied supply for a couple of turns].

Apart from these "Northern Group" forces, France has weak divisions of her "2nd Army" deployed along the Meuse; a partly-formed armoured group dispersed south of Paris, and a relatively capable motorized group deployed further south. All of these forces are "garrisoned" until Turn 3.

Allied force organizations deviates from history, partly for design reasons, partly to allow the potential for recovering into an effective fighting force. France now has an organization fairly parallel to the Germans?: mobile forces concentrated into "mechanized" and "motorized" groups, for example. Her infantry divisions are potentially slightly more mobile than Germany?s. Britain has her tank forces concentrated into a couple of "armored divisions", initially.

In the "Northern Group" (NG) forces in Flanders and Belgium, unit representation deviates from Game norm in breaking out artillery into separate units, as well as the tank battalions which French motorized divisions possess in this universe, represented by the "heavy tank" icon (motorized divisions with the tank battalion incorporated take an "armored infantry" icon). The purpose of this separation is mainly to allow for differential evacuation (see below), but also gives the Allies a few more manoeuvre units to help attempt to slow the German race for the Channel.

NG units are distinguished by their counter colors. French NG forces are grey on green (versus blue on green for other French troops. British NG forces are green on brown (versus blue on brown for other British forces).

The Allies receive the following main reinforcements:

In addition, a game option allows France to receive two more redeployed "southern armies"; a "4th Army" appearing around Evreaux at the same time as "3rd Army" deploys, and a "6th Army" deploying around Orleans on Turn 15, if France is still fighting. Both have nine divisions. [These might be thought of as representing better French handling of the south, and perhaps something to do with the game-ignored Italian front.]

Britain may also send further reinforcements to France (see below), and weak but potentially useful French "militia" units will deploy around Turn 23 if France has not surrendered by then.

The Northern Group has the following division strength: 12 French infantry, 6 French armoured and 9 French motorised; 8 British infantry and 2 British armored. There is also a French "Cavalry Corps" with four armored cavalry "brigades". Most of these troops are up to strength and of reasonable quality. This is the core of the Allied army and if it is lost, the Allies are in obvious trouble.

In total, the basic game fields for the Allies 10 British infantry, 2 British armored, 42 French infantry, 8 French armored and 13 French motorized divisions, for a total of 74. Belgium and Holland add another 31, making a grand total of 106. The Belgian and Dutch divisions are comparatively weak, and some British and French units start below strength. The Germans invade with 102.

Game options allow another 18 under-strength French infantry and the equivalent of about four British divisions to appear as additional reinforcements.

A major redeployment of Allied troops will occur upon evacuation from Belgium and Flanders; see below.

The Germans start poised for the Channel dash and push into Holland and Belgium. In some places, they have already crossed borders All mechanized forces are on the map, plus some infantry. Further infantry "armies" will appear as reinforcements over the first few turns, winding up from the Rhine with their long lines of horse-transport [and not dashing ahead of the panzer divisions, as TOAW would otherwise prefer].

Mechanized forces are organized into a strong "Panzergruppe A", aimed at Sedan; its running-mate "Panzergruppe B", placed to cross the Meuse further north; "Panzergruppe C" to engage Allied forces trying to move south to meet the main threat and exploit any gaps this causes; and a smaller "Panzer Korps Nord" to race through Holland, joining up with the Fallschirmjaegers attacking The Hague.

Panzer divisions are represented by two brigades each; one tank and one motorized infantry. Division organization is not represented; the brigades are mixed indiscriminately in their Panzergruppe/PzKorps parent formations.

Most other forces are represented at divisional level, except for Fallschirmjaeger regiments.

Germany?s total line up for the Battle is 81 infantry, 10 panzer, 10 motorized and (briefly) one parachute division, for a total of 102 divisions. The Allies field 106 in the basic game, but 31 of these are relatively weak Belgian and Dutch formations, and some British and French units are below strength.

The Luftwaffe will automatically redeploy to Flanders and Belgium a couple of turns after any un-evacuated remnants of the Allied Northern Group surrender. This positions them to cover the end-game of the Battle of France, as well as the Battle of Britain.

Land forces undergo a major reorganization following the French surrender; refer to the Battle of Britain section.

The Germans have five months to force France to ask for terms. They achieve this by taking objectives and inflicting casualties on the Allied armies.

Objectives include the ports to be used for Sealion (Ostende, Dunkirk, Calaias, Boulogne and Le Havre)l towns and cities in an arc around Paris (Rouen, Evreux, Dreux, Chartres, Orleans, Montargis, Sens and Troyes) ; and Paris itself.

Each objective is worth 5 points, except for Paris, which is worth 10. The total is 75.

When France asks for terms, there will be a one turn cease fire, after which France will surrender. All British forces remaining in France are cut off and surrender; the French military is removed from play; and German forces are reorganized in preparation for the Battle of Britain.

If the Germans fail to achieve French surrender within the five months, the game ends with an Allied victory.

The victory level displayed in the situation briefing shows Germany?s progress. Objetives in the UK are factored out during the Battle of France for the purposes of determining French surrender, so Germany?s progress is given in terms of a total possible score of 75.

Before the Allied command recovers, France may ask for terms when the German victory level reaches 25 and again when it reaches 45; and will definitely ask for terms when it reaches 55. After any Allied recovery (see below), France?s resolve stiffens, and the 25 point level no longer applies. One month after an Allied recovery, France becomes even more resolute, and the 45 point level no longer applies.

Relative casualty levels modify the victory level in the normal TOAW fashion. In addition, the Allies receive a moderate victory level boost if Britain decides to send her reserve forces to France, and the Germans get a larger boost if and when Britain decides to evacuate her forces from France (not counting any Dunkirk evacuation; see below).

After the French surrender, the victory level is reset in preparation for the Battle of Britain. The scores achieved during the Battle of France have no effect on the remainder of the game, except for effects relating to the relative casualty score.

A number of small security units are deployed at Amiens, which the Germans can use for cleaning up any objectives not taken before the French surrender.

Allied forces remain deeply disadvantaged relative to the Germans unless they can slow the pace of German advances. The Allies will recover if the Germans have not reached the Channel at Abbeville by the end of Turn 7. Failing this, they have another chance to recover if the Germans are not winning (in terms of the victory level reported in the situation briefing) by the end of Turn 16.

Allied recovery will be reported in the news briefing. Until it occurs, the Allies may find it difficult to hold a firm line without taking large casualties.

A game option allows for faster Allied recovery, and another for increasing the German "shock" advantage while the Allies are disorganized.

France is more likely to surrender early before the Allies have recovered; see above.

The major goal of the German player?s opening moves should be to force the surrender of the Northern Group (NG) of French and British forces in Belgium and Flanders. Second best is to force an evacuation of infantry from Dunkirk, leaving most artillery and armor behind. Handled correctly, this will result in the quick destruction of a large proportion of the Allied armies in exchange for light German casualties.

For the Allied player, the goal is to evacuate the NG by land before it is forced to surrender. A sea evacuation is second best, but much preferable to out-right surrender.

The evacuation and surrender rules are quite complex to describe, but everything happens automatically and it?s mostly enough to remember just the following:

the detail ?

The Allied player cannot get the NG out of danger simply by moving it south of the Somme. Instead, he needs to go through an evacuation preparation and execution process, as described here. The assumption is that the rigid and out-of-touch Allied Supreme Command has given orders that the north is to be held as a priority. Only a slow realization of the scale of the impending catastrophe will change their minds ? perhaps too late. [This is vaguely historical ? French planning gave priority to protecting the industrial area around Lille, hence the move into Belgium to the Dyle Line; and Britain was always concerned to deny the Channel coast to the Germans.]

The Allied Supreme Command will not allow preparations for the evacuation of the NG to begin until Turn 5, except that if Abbeville falls or the Germans approach within 80km of Paris, preparations will commence automatically and at once.

Assuming the Abbevile/Paris conditions are not triggered, the Allies may begin preparations by selecting a theater option which appears starting on Turn 5. The Allied player may delay preparations if he thinks he can hold the Germans for longer; for example, to stop the Germans from taking Abbeville before Turn 8 and thereby preventing Allied recovery. If he delays too long, the NG may be forced to surrender. (Theoretically, it is possible for the Allied player to prevent both evacuation and surrender until the Germans call off their offensive after five months ? but this is not very likely!)

Once preparations have begun, the NG will automatically progress towards evacuation, as described in detail below. The player may not halt this process, but the Germans may force the NG to surrender before it has started to evacuate or completed evacuating.

Any un-evacuated units of the NG will surrender en masse on the first turn on which both Dunkirk and Abbeville are held by the Germans, or on the sixth turn fte preparations begin, whichever comes first. They will be removed from the map and their equipment will be lost. The only way to prevent this is to go through the evacuation preparation procedure. For example, if the Allied player moves NG units out of Flanders, they will still be subject to NG surrender.

[A design limitation, unfortunately. I need a way for the AI to be able to evacuate, but the AI can?t be instructed to do something like "evacuate unit X if it is in Flanders, in communication with Dunkirk and cut-off from Paris". So the AI?s evacuation programming has to apply to the whole NG. Because I want the AI to play the same game rules as a human, the rules enforced on a human player need to apply to the whole NG, no matter where situated, as well.]

After evacuation preparations begin ("P day"), a number of events occur:

Not every unit will successfully evacuate. Units which did not evacuate successfully will remain on the map until destroyed or until the NG surrenders.

The French "Cavalry Corps" never evacuates; it is left behind to fight rear-guard actions. Every other unit has an excellent chance of evacuating by land, but only infantry and motorised infantry units may evacuate by sea. More infantry and motorised infantry units will fail to evacuate in a sea evacuation than in a land evacuation.

British units are favored over French in a sea evacuation. They have a higher chance of successful evacuation, and their evacuation will take place on P+3 and P+4. Some French units will have to wait until P+5 (with a correspondingly higher chance of being lost if the NG surrenders before P+5).

Evacuated forces have their equipment returned to the force pool.

Units evacuated by sea never reappear; they are lost, but their evacuated equipment is available to reinforce others. [So only the BEF equipment, not the units themselves, is "evacuated". Some of the HD units in the UK have higher experience and "veteran" status and can be thought of as units evacuated from France, either at this point or later.]

Units evacuated by land reappear in reorganized and skeletal form below the Seine. They will spend one turn "garrisoned down", collecting equipment, before being released for operations.

The Allied supply point at Dunkirk disappears if the Dunkirk fleet is sunk.

Land-evacuated forces are reorganized as follows:

Subsequent to evacuation, un-evacuated NG units may continue to operate freely in Belgium and Flanders until NG surrender. Non-NG units may enter Belgium and Flanders, but will not be evacuated if they are cut off [and will not be affected by NG surrender ? another design limitation].

Two turns after the NG (or its un-evacuated remnants) surrender, the Luftwaffe will automatically redeploy to airfields in Flanders. To help make sure the airfields are clear of enemy control, the German gets a few weak security units (grey-on-grey counters) on the turn of NG surrender.

Fice turns after evacuation preparations start, Britain?s Home Defence (HD) forces will deploy on the map and begin receiving replacements, in competition with any British forces in France. They are organized as half-division "brigades" and armored brigades.

HD forces are mostly very weak to begin with, representing new formations the British are frantically trying to equip and train in preparation for a German assault.

The only capable formation is a reserve "Br 2nd Army", distinguished by its black-on-brown scheme, as compared to the white-on-brown for other Home Defence forces.

At this time, the French will ask Britain to send this reserve force, together with fighters, to France. Britain may elect to do this via a theatre option; "Br 2nd Army" will be removed from the map and reappear at Cherbourg as "BEF 3", and a Hurricane unit will appear in Normandy.

Doing so will provide a modest boost to the Allied victory level, perhaps prolonging French resistance and allowing the Allies in France to recover eventually (if they are still disorganized after NG evacuation), in addition to their value as line troops.

However, there are also drawbacks:

At any time after the evacuation of the NG, Britain may elect (via a theatre option) to further evacuate any forces she has remaining in France. If the NG evacuated by sea, these will be limited to the two divisions of the "XI Corps" which deploy at Le Havre on Turn 6, and are not included in the NG. Otherwise, it may include "BEF 2" forces and the reinforcing "BEF 3".

British forces may not evacuate if France asks for terms, or after the German victory level has reached 20 points; the theater option will be removed. [In both cases, it is assumed that all escape routes have been blocked by Germans and/or the French.] Any remaining units will eventually surrender.

Otherwise, all British units have a good chance to evacuate [via equipment returned to the force pool] but will take some losses.

Choosing to evacuate boosts the German victory level (more than counter-balancing any Allied boost for "BEF 3" deployment), and may precipitate an early French collapse.

The option to deploy "BEF 3", if not already exercised, will disappear after Britain orders evacuation.

The Germans start off with very strong force supply levels which gradually reduce. The Allies start off with very low supply, increasing over the first couple of turns. They lose five supply points with the fall of Abbeville [weakly modelling the loss of access to the northern industrial areas].

The Germans get new supply points as they advance, at Sedan, Brussels, Amiens and Rouen.

Around turn 25, "Lend Lease" shipments from the US will kick in, giving the Allies a replacements boost. A game option allows these shipments to start at the beginning of the game instead.

Germany begins with massive replacement pools, allowing it to sustain a very high-intensity assault for many weeks. However, its replacement "run rate" is substantially less than the Allies? (less than Britain alone, in many cases).

The initial replacement pool is the thick layer of "fat" Germany has available to burn for the conquest of France. The goal of the Allies is to make Germany burn as much of it as possible, and start expending the "muscle" beneath, before Sealion commences.

After the fall of France, the German player will have enough temporary kudos to call up additional reserves. But only just ? if he does call up the reserves, he will have only three months instead of four to conquer Britain, before his political situation falls apart at home.

Once the "fat" and these additional reserves are gone, the Germans have a fairly lean replacement outlook, compared to the British, who on the other hand start off extremely weak.

A game option allows a substantial boost to the German replacement rate.

If the French hold off for long enough (around Turn 22), the nucleus of a "French government in exile" will be created in London, heralded by an appropriate news message. This indicates that a "Free French" force is being prepared to carry on resistance from the UK. When Sealion opens, this useful force will deploy a few brigades around London and a fighter component. It is assumed that these are units escaping from the ruin of France and French overseas territories.

The only units which can reconstitute during the Battle of France are British Home Defence units (air and land) and Luftwaffe units after the redeployment to Flanders and Belgium.

This is dictated largely by a bug in TOAW, which leads to the reconstitution of some units even after their entire force has been withdrawn, if the units can be reconstituted at all. Without this restriction, France would fill up with reconstituted Allied units after the surrender. The net effect will be that the Allied line thins out faster, but individual units will keep their strength longer.

Holland is there because it has to be, but plays little part in the game. The Dutch will surrender after a few turns, earlier perhaps when The Hague or Amsterdam falls.

Overall, the Battle of France is best viewed as the opening round of the Battle of Britain. The goal of the Allies is to make it last as long as possible, while causing lots of German casualties at relatively smaller British expense. The longer France holds out, the more robust Britain?s land and air defences and vital C and C capability becomes. The more casualties the Germans take, the weaker her Sealion forces will be.

Britain may have to put forces into the line to buttress France, in terms of morale as well as combat ability. The consideration will be to what extent French resistance can leverage the inevitable British losses to optimize Britain?s position versus Germany at the start of Sealion.

The initial, urgent goal for the Allies is to hold back the Germans from the Channel around Abbeville until at least the end of Turn 7, allowing for early Allied recovery. Against this, the Allies need to make sure they evacuate the Northern Group (which includes most of the forces available for covering Abbeville) before being cut off from land and sea.

For Germany, the main consideration is the optimal rate of "fat burning": a faster advance using up the replacement pool at a faster rate but for a faster outcome, versus something more measured, requiring fewer losses but giving Britain more time to build up her defences.

The "standard" game is weighted in Germany?s favour. Holding out much beyond the end of June might be hard for an Allied player against an equal opponent [but more play testing is required to confirm this]. The initial Allied positioning and disorganization, and the sheer speed and weight of the German assault, should give the Allies only limited prospects for the recovery they probably need for a more prolonged resistance. However, if the Allies do recover early, they can probably hold out to the point where they start to make the Germans burn "fat".

Against a German AI, however, this is probably a fairly even game; if not, the game options increasing German shock and replacements may help. For human-vs-humans, and against an Allied AI, some selection of the various game options favoring the Allies should help to provide a balanced game.

An outline of the flow of this part of the game is probably useful.

Background on design decisions is probably necessary to make sense of some "features" of the battle.

Upon French surrender, the whole German army disappears, to be replaced by a reconfigured force assembling for the invasion. [To make the design simpler, Cherbourg is ignored as a potential invasion base; I assume sufficient airfield, port etc infrastructure around Boulogne, Dunkirk, Calais and Le Havre. This is not historical, but has no particular effect on things.]

Leading the assault will be two parachute divisions, which can lend anywhere in the UK so long as it?s in Kent, behind the invasion beaches and ports [joke ? but players should really avoid implausible airdrops, and in any case they will only remain for a couple of turns before being withdrawn.]

Following closely on the paratroops? heels, the Germans have specially trained five "Sturm Divisionen" for the seaborne assault, held back from the Battle of France. These are organized as two half-division "brigades" each, plus an attached engineer-heavy brigade also containing specialized armor which the Germans have designed and built for this task.

Follow-on troops comprise three infantry "Sturm Armees", with some attached heavy artillery for the anticipated Siege of London, and three "Panzer Korps", each with the equivalent of two panzer and two motorized divisions. The tank forces are split into combined panzer and panzer grenadier brigades, to allow shipping in stages.

The total force available for the Battle of Britain is 32 infantry, 6 panzer, 6 motorized and two parachute divisions.

Facing them, the British initially have 5 "armies" each with 9 half-division "brigades" (or only 4 "armies", if "BEF 3" was lost in France). Four of the armies also include three armored brigades each. There are also a fairly large number of weak Home Guard "battalions", and "garrison" troops in many locations.

In terms of mobile forces, the British have the equivalent of about 22 infantry (18 if "BEF 3" was lost) and four armored divisions, initially. (This will be increased a little if "Free French" forces are available.) They receive about 4 divisions worth of reinforcements in early October.

Various factors constrain the force potential on both sides:

British units in Britain will be substantially more effective than their equivalents were in France. Relative to the Germans, all else being equal, they will tend to be more mobile, be better defenders and have better reconnaissance. They will also benefit from substantially higher supply availability and distribution, and higher replacement priorities. All of these factors are intended to model the great advantages British troops would have fighting on their own ground and directly before their supply centers.

German mobility is much decreased, supply distribution is much less effective, and the supply radius is much shorter. Replacement priorities are low, reflecting shipping bottlenecks.

Germany can begin Sealion about 8 turns after the fall of France by selecting a theatrer option. A news message will indicate that the invasion is ready to proceed.

On the first turn (S-Tag), the two parachute divisions are released. They must be used this turn, and should be employed to shield the invasion zones from copunter-attack.

On the next turn (S+1), the Allies will probably have first-turn initiative for a counter-attack. The Germans are assumed to have won the pre-invasion intelligence war, keeping the Allies guessing about where the invasion will come. All Allied troops are "garrisoned" until the paratroops land.

Also on S+1, the five German "Sturm Divisionen" are released for the seaborne invasion. The only beach-head hexes are Dover, Hastings, Eastbourne and Folkestone, and the invasion must happen at these places. German transport shipping is high enough to land all these units in the first assault.

Starting S+2, follow-on forces are released, some ready for embarkation, others deployed further back, ready to move up to the ports. The rate at which these forces can be landed depends crucially on how Germany is faring in the air war.

Two kinds of German shipping are represented: supply and transport fleets. Each may be sunk by the RAF, decreasing capability in the respective areas. A sunk fleet will be replaced on the following turn, up to a total of four fleets of each type. Each sinking represents a progressive loss of force supply (4 points each time, from 20 initially) or sea transport. These losses are never replaced.

In the worst case, with all 8 fleets sunk, the Germans will have a force supply level of just 4 points, and not enough shipping to transport the larger units to Britain.

Transport shipping only appears on the map and as an RAF target after S-Tag; sea transport always starts at a level sufficient to transport the initial invasion force. Supply transport however is on-map and vulnerable from the beginning of the air war.

A theater option allows the Germans substantial sea transport benefits, by never offering up transport fleets as RAF targets.

[This design is open to revision.]

The Germans can obtain significant temporary advantages by disabling British RAF and land C and C. It is assumed that the Germans have un-historically excellent intelligence about these (a source for this intelligence is hinted at in the German victory briefing). RAF Control, in particular, is extremely fragile initially, and will remain very vulnerable until the end of the game. Land C an C is slightly more robust.

As with shipping, each sinking of a British C and C "fleet" decreases air or land capability. However, these capability losses are temporary; the British will recover after a few turns, and a new "fleet" will appear, indicating that the Luftwaffe needs to return to suppression missions. Four sinkings are required for permanent suppression, in both cases.

Historically, the Luftwaffe was probably too weak for everything a successful Sealion would have required, and the game assumes the Germans have devoted more resources to the Luftwaffe, with some new fighter and bomber outfits becoming available at the start of the air war. [You have to work pretty hard to make Sealion look plausible!]

The RAF starts out with a large but brittle advantage (radar, better control, advantages of fighting defensively over own territory etc). Once the first RAF C and C "fleet" is destroyed, this advantage will be removed permanently, and the RAF will be only at parity with the Luftwaffe whenever RAF C and C is active.

Counterbalancing the German?s larger-than-historical Luftwaffe, the game assumes that the RAF actually received some kind of decent return on its large pre-war Bomber Command investment. Bomber Command (which here includes a "Coastal Command" of specialized anti-shipping aircraft) is activated at the start of the air war and can be quite potent against German shipping. [Alternatively, this better Bomber Command can be thought of as modelling RN anti-invasion forces.]

A contingent of good-quality but under-equipped Imperial and Dominion troops appears for Britain around the start of October. The Germans receive no reinforcements, except for weak local defence troops and some logistical units, as British cities are taken.

Germans have various supply restrictions as detailed previously. Their only supply sources in Britain are the invasion points, and Portsmouth. Given their low supply radius, this will make advances from the coast more difficult.

To counterbalance this somewhat, they will receive supply dumps in various British cities once taken. Also, a few railroad repair units will appear. The Germans get no automatic rail repair once the invasion has begun.

Britain starts the battle with a high supply level, but loses five points each with the fall of London and Birmingham.

German replacements remain constant. British replacements drop by 25% with the loss of each of London and Birmingham.

Cold fronts will begin to move through later in 1940, with a warm front sometime in April.

To force Britain to surrender and win the overall game, Germany has four months after the commencement of Sealion (three months if reserves have been called up) to capture sufficient objectives to isolate and perhaps occupy London. Relative casualty levels also play a part. If Germany fails to achieve this, the Allies win.

The objectives in Britain are Bristol, Swindon, Oxford, Luton (all 10 points), three hexes of greater London (10 points each), and Birmingham and Peterborough (15 points each). This gives a total of 100 objective points.

Before the commencement of the Battle of Britain, victory levels from the Battle of France will be adjusted to show Britain winning by 100 points (plus some effect from relative casualties so far).

Britain surrenders when Germany?s victory level reaches 41.

Upon the surrender of France, the German player will be offered the chance to call up his reserves. This opportunity lasts for one turn only.

Calling up reserves dumps into the replacement pool the infantry of about nine divisions; the equipment of about six; and a panzer brigade.

The discontent this causes reduces the German player?s window of opportunity for conquering Britain after the commencement of Sealion to three months, instead of four.

This is a grim struggle. The Germans will be constrained by shipping limitations, long and fragile supply lines and mobility limitations The Allies will be much tougher, head for head, than in France, and opportunities for manoeuvre will be limited. Unless the Germans can gain enough strength advantage to force a breakthrough, it will be a long siege, with Winter probably approaching.

The Germans will be trying to extend the front to bring more force to bear and open up gaps to be exploited. An attrition strategy will be required to achieve this, probably, but at a loss ratio of more than 1:1 the Germans run the risk of losing the numerical advantage they will need for victory.

British strategy depends a lot on when the invasion happens and how strong her forces are at that time. Stopping the Germans at the high-water mark probably isn?t an option. Too closely investing the lodgement area in Kent will expose British forces to relatively well-supplied German assault; pulling back too far may thin out the line too much. Unless the Germans have been very seriously weakened in France, they will have a strong numerical advantage, once they can land enough troops, and defending too tenaciously nd too far forward might see the British overrun.

Probably the best British strategy is to pick a line, defend it grimly and keep forces in reserve to counter any break-throughs. The pace of any German exploitation will be limited by poor supply, and if Britain can keep the loss ratio down, time tends to be on her side as the RAF (hopefully) takes an increasing toll on shipping.

A game option opens up the possibility of the US intervening on the side of the Allies, if France holds out for around 25 turns.

The assumption is that the US is less isolationist than was the case historically, has commenced some kind of early rearmament, sufficient to give her something to intervene with. If France falls too quickly, pragmatism and still-potent isolationism will combine to keep America out of what appears to be a war which has been lost already. If France holds out for long enough, it will expose the Germans as potentially beatable, while at the same time providing time for the Germans to become more heavy-handed in the occupied territories as the pressure for victory mounts, inflaming sentiment against them.

A news message will herald America?s growing commitment to war. The actual declaration will come some time around the beginning of October.

On US intervention, Allied replacements increase, and an American contingent arrives in the UK. This will consist initially of a lightly armed regiment of marines, followed by two divisions of infantry, a couple of tank "brigades", and a moderate air component.